Paleo Profile - Sea Scorpions

hello there guys and we are back with another paleo profile and we've covered weird bear trap fish lizards sloths and armadillo Crocs so today let's discuss some of the normal animals from Earth's past giant sea scorpions I'm done that's right we are going to examine the famous and incredibly creepy sea scorpions of Earth's past the Europe grids and find out just how strange they got so I hope you like creepy crawlies because this is paleo profile Europe turds most paleo fans have heard of these guys but normally they pretty much know nothing about them other than they looked like big scorpions and were creepy looking from the time fish began to develop their jaws - just before the reign of the dinosaurs that these guys dominated Earth's salt and freshwater ecosystems and gave way to the largest arthropods in Earth history they were the Europe turds also known as sea scorpions for all yuan professionals out there I'm so alone Europe turds were a very long-lasting incredibly diverse group of arthropods that existed on earth from the OO division to the end of the Permian they could range in size from small enough to fit into the palm of your hand to long enough to be the size of an alligator they were so weird it's often difficult to accept that organisms this large and this alien like once existed Europe dudes have their origins possibly as far back as the Cambrian as they are likely descended from some of the first animals to walk on land such as protic Knights Succot vertebrates their independent ancestry and evolution from us backboned internal skeleton minorities have resulted in them exhibiting many interesting traits of modern arthropods such as ants and crabs brodester wounds as arthropods they possessed a tough exoskeleton just like crustaceans insects and one of their closest living relatives arachnids they often possess 10 limbs 8 for walking and capturing prey and 2 to be used as paddles for propulsion some could use these to paddle like legs as well paddles in a rowing locomotion much like a boat at the end of their body was a long and flexible tail called a telson which often possessed a spine on its tip although some Europe turds possessed a tail like fluke instead underneath their body in the center was one gaping mouth which the limbs brought food to Europe turrets also had more than two eyes hey don't judge you once at three they possess two large binocular compound eyes on the top of their heads and in between these two larger eyes were two smaller ones called a celli this is unlike their Scorpion relatives or do in fact also have two larger eyes on the top but instead have their numerous smaller eyes near the front of their bodies close to the pinchers drip turds closest relatives are even more extravagant possessing a grand total of seven eyes throughout their bodies Europe turrets bodies most resembled that of modern scorpions but in contrary to their names Europe turrets art scorpions at all and are only distantly related to them yes as it turns out these sea scorpions aren't even scorpions and according to most cladistics Europe nerds closest relatives are horseshoe crabs which have a more compact body plan arachnids such as scorpions and spiders are closely related to Europe turds but most studies suggest they are closely related to horseshoe crabs which have survived since the audition period far out lasting their scorpion esque brethren the Stinger like tails of Europe turrets called Tulsans are actually homologous to those found on modern horseshoe crabs in reality most arthropods still have this tail like appendage which has diversified to evolve into many different uses from tail fins and shrimp and crabs to ironically enough the Stinger of a scorpion to the whip like sensory organ found in whip scorpions it appears scorpions are closely related to spiders and other arachnids than they do to Europe turds therefore their close appearance seems to be convergent evolution the thing is scorpions other arachnids like spiders resemble Europe dreads so much sometimes arachnids are mistaken to be europe turds and europe turds are sometimes mistaken to be arachnids nevertheless they are distinctly different from one another and you can often distinguish between the two if you know what to look for one of the biggest identifiers z' is the legs generally europe turds have shorter limbs it's ending in a single claw instead of the two toes like those found in modern and extinct scorpions europe turret legs normally arm or paddle lake due to they're much more amuri nand aquatic life unlike scorpions very few europe turrets had adapted to walk on land and when they did they lumbered about by dragging their bodies in the mud while scorpions were much more adapted to life on land with longer and thinner legs that carried their bodies above the ground another identifier is their Tulsans or tail region Europe birds had venomous tails that were used more for locomotion and steering underwater scorpion tails are more often used for the offensive and defensive as weapons than inject venom into their prey the last identifier is the fact scorpions tend to be smaller than Europe towards due to their aquatic environment Europe turds were capable of reaching larger sizes than their terrestrial cousins although some scorpions were able to rival their aquatic kin in size during the Carboniferous despite these differences it is interesting that these two distinct groups evolved to resemble one another one group simply became more specialized for life on land while the other was more specialized for life onto water there was actually a very decent amount of overlap when the Scorpion imposters coexisted along their true scorpion cousins I guess Europe turds came first so it would be true Europe turds alongside and Europe turd imposters we should probably call our modern scorpions land Europe towards instead of that's calling Europe toward sea scorpions huh fights between bronto scorpio a true scorpion and terry godus europe turd most likely could have happened like all arthropods europe turrets had to molt their exoskeletons in order to grow they would shed their outer shell and grow a new one this process has been seen in modern arthropods some of them very large but watching an eight-foot-long europe turret shed its skin would truly be a spectacle sometimes enormous mounds of molted exoskeletons from many individuals such as europe tourists are found on now fossilized beaches these mass gatherings have been interpreted as mass mating and molting sites where you rip turrets from all over the ocean would migrate to a safe beach shore away from predators and great numbers to mate lay eggs and then molt their exoskeletons and then leave their young to grow this behavior is incredibly similar to that of modern horseshoe crabs will also host massive reunions on shore areas in order to mate lay eggs and then molt their skin again leaving their young to grow on certain nights during the Silurian Devonian auto vision of Carboniferous one could watch hundreds if not thousands of these sea scorpions scuttling across the beach piled on top of one another just like their modern relatives Europe turds are interesting simply due to the true diversity of them as a whole the thing is again in contradictory to their name they weren't restricted to living in the sea they existed both in freshwater and saltwater occupying many different roles some were massive super predators the largest in the early with powerful crushing claws others were gentle giants spending more time in swamps and streams sifting through the mud for tiny invertebrates others still possess spiky spines on their forelimbs used to impale early fish and other still were stingray like swimmers scavenging in the primitive reefs the thing is they weren't scorpions and not all of them lived in the sea a considerable amount of them lived in freshwater streams swamps and rivers brilliant jobs science even a few European even started to colonize the land and they will be the highlight for the rest of this episode instead of highlighting some of the well known ones i thought i would like to highlight one of the very obscure yet fascinating members of europe during the Carboniferous sea scorpion which was neither a scorpion nor lived in the sea so may Hibert top terrace or as i like to call it the armored walking manatee during the time of the worldwide swamps increased oxygen levels and super-sized insects a group of Europe turds broke off from their primarily aquatic relatives and began to settle the land stylo nuria had developed increasingly more robust and stout limbs used for walking on terrestrial soil much like those of modern land crabs in contrast to their water drilling cousins whose limbs were weak and only used for crawling on the sea bottom they evolved to the point they lost swimming legs entirely eventually members of styler Maria took advantage of their dry environment suited legs and diversified into many different amphibious niches and the Carboniferous swamps growing to large sizes coexisting alongside just as large true scorpion rivals Europe turds like mega Arachne might have resemble a cat sized spider and was in fact once mistaken for one but the largest and truly most bizarre of the Carboniferous Europe turds Beiber top terrace and what is now Scotland a massive six metre long track a meteor cross was discovered in the Carboniferous mud the animal exhibited a lumbering and dragging motion through the soil these tracks would later be identified as those of a gargantuan arthropod five feet long and three feet across subsequent fossils display that this animal possessed a head shield that vaguely resembled a human face it's body was well fat and it might have looked like a massive scuttling Zoidberg so I guess like zoidberg it dragged his heavy body across the muck with strong and robust legs dragging its Scorpion s tail it was so strange Hibbert opted Eris was first believed to be an entirely unrelated group to director hood until further studies showed that this weirdo was in fact a sea scorpion despite its scary appearance it was relatively harmless and only fed on small invertebrates by filtering them out of the soft sediment with blade lake claws most of the time one would see them resting in the streams and rivers like boulders with legs such an animal would be a spectacle to see moving around on land moving like a sea turtle yet looking like a cow sized horseshoe crab I for one think that there's just something magical about giant shark sized crab like scorpions that come in hundreds of shapes and sizes imagine swimming with Europe dreads or holding ones the size of cats someone has to draw a pet Europe turret get on it artists I guess well I digressed Europe birds dominated Earth's ecosystems during the Paleozoic some preying on our fish and then amphibian ancestors frequently taking the roles of what we consider to be traditionally vertebrate niches they were so successful at preying on vertebrates that it is likely that early fish like placa derms evolved thick armored plating to defend themselves from the pincers of these crab like predators it wasn't until the Permian when these organisms we can to decline and the Permian mass extinction put a final nail on the coffin of these arthropods pop culture crap Europe turds have made a may impact on pop culture one of the most famous and in my opinion best depictions has been in the BBC walking with Ceres and walking with monsters the massive Europe turret tere godus is briefly seen living alongside its true scorpion relative Bronto Scorpio and chased by sea monsters rip turds get much more attention as mega rap dust is seen throughout the episode as predators with very damaging weapons that are able to tear animals to shreds the episode even ends by displaying a mass mating and molting gathering just as some fossils have proven both depictions look great accuracy wise and they look amazing as models and CGI effects sometimes they really look like they are alive one nitpick of mine is that the sea scorpions and the BBC documentaries don't have the high spots in the centre of their heads as they did in life Terry godus is depicted caring for its young I'm not sure if we have any evidence to prove this as said before most Europe turds reproduce much like horseshoe crabs coming to shore and large numbers reproducing molting their exoskeletons abandoning their young in the process it's possible some Europe turds might have deviated from this though later in walking with stirrers they depict a giant predatory Carboniferous spider simply referred to as mesothelin interestingly this spider was originally supposed to be a Europe druid by the name of Meg Arachne that at the time of the show's production was misinterpreted as a big spider the show last min had to change the name as it was too far in production to change the design and storyboard the real animal look like this and was less a spider more of a scorpion or sea scorpion another interesting pop-culture appearance of Europe Therese is that of pokemons Kabutops which is a fossil Pokemon is somewhat inspired by Europe turrets possessing cool sickle like claws and a bipedal stance it evolved from a trilobite inspired one Kabuto Europe turds in reality did not evolve from trilobite s' they are virtually unrelated Europe turds have been seen as minor characters and many other prehistoric thingies but never in great or notable extent nevertheless in my opinion rip turds are one of the most interesting groups throughout all of Earth's history these big bugs would have ruled the world if it wasn't for that pesky mass extinction our success as vertebrates owes itself to the extinction of these guys so next time when you're bored and feeling down just remember your ancestors used to cower and fear from giant scorpions that really weren't scorpions thanks for watching suck it vertebrates

Channel: TREY the Explainer

Views: 723,128

Rating: 4.8875031 out of 5

Keywords: sea scorpions, sea scorpion, eurypterid, eurypterids, prehistoric

Id: 4dTiUHvIm0s

Length: 12min 17sec (737 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 13 2016